Incrementalism, housing supply and city-making from below: learning from Khulna, Bangladesh

Figures & data

Figure 1. Khulna city and its extended urbanising fringes. Source: Author.

Table 1. Methods and materials.

Semi-structured interviews	96
Owner-occupiers	23
Renters	16
Absent landowners	2
Caretaker families on absentee owner’s land	24
Persons involved in land selling	7
Small business holders (e.g., tea staller, shop keeper, etc.) and others with informal employment in the fringes	9
Urban Planning experts	5
DADP Consultant	1
Assistant Town Planner, KDA	1
Chief Planning Officer, KCC	1
Vice Chairman, Batiaghata Upazilla	1
Officer in the Land Registry Office	1
NGO workers from Shushilan, DFID and ASA	3
Environmental Scientist and activist, BAPA	1
Lawyer/expert in land administration	1
Focus groups	5
Owner occupiers	2
Caretaker family heads and NGO officials	2
Person’s related to land selling	1
Participant observations
Review of relevant planning documents

Source: Author.

Figure 2. (a) Signage with landownership information; (b) plot demarcation while farming continues; (c) strategic plantation in the plot; (d) land development for building works. Source: Author.

Figure 3. (a) Owner-occupier’s shop; (b) permanent (pile) foundation on which temporary house to be built; (c) an extension of the house rented out; (d) sales advertisement by owner-occupiers. Source: Author.

Figure 4. (a) Signage for land sale; (b) land sale signage with the plot layout; (c) potential road layout; (d) Naming of the development as the ‘city’. Source: Author.

Figure 5. (a) The shop with land sale signage; (b) the shop with land sale advertisement; (c) selling construction Material alongside shopkeeping; (d) construction material sales on vacant lots. Source: Author.

Table 2. Incremental housing pathways informing city-wide outcomes.

Housing pathways	Housing actors involved	Incremental practices	City-wide outcomes
Absentee landholding	Absent landowner Caretaker of land Homeless migrant Short-term lessee	Delaying building construction due to a lack of urban services and planning approvals Leasing out for agricultural activities Step-by-step land development for future construction Allowing migrants to stay in the corner as caretaker	Affordable temporary housing provision for the urban homeless outside slums Regularisation of peri-urban land (through plotting and land development) Continuation of urban green/ agriculture
Makeshift sheltering	Onsite landowner Occasional tenant	Minimal investment in housebuilding to meet immediate need Step-by-step land development for future construction Outsourcing and storage of building materials Occasional renting Alternate livelihood options from land (initiating a shop, vegie gardening, etc.) Apartment sale off the plan Infrastructure provisioning by pursuing political elites and urban institutions	Affordable housing solutions for the low-to-middle income urbanites Creation of an informal rental housing market New knowledge on housing demand in the peri-urban areas Formation of new residential suburbs Infrastructures and services extended to new and emerging residential clusters Continuation of urban green/ agriculture
Speculative land disposal	Landowner-turned-developer Non-landowner developer	Housing demand assessment on privately owned lands Surveying, plotting, land development and land sale Lobbying municipal service providers and political elites for new infrastructures and services. Lobbying urban institutions for building approvals and real estate development licencing.	Creation of a private land-based housing market Affordable housing solutions for the low-to-middle income urbanites Regularisation of peri-urban land through land development and planning approvals Urban infrastructure provisioning in new and emerging residential settlements Creation of new residential suburbs City-wide land price adjustments
Informal brokerage	Part-time broker	Various housing related services (e.g., land information, negotiation of land disputes, supply of construction materials, etc.) to potential land buyers and existing landowners. Helping new landowners lobby municipal service providers, urban institutions, political elites, etc.	Urban infrastructure provisioning in new and emerging settlements Formation of distinct residential suburbs

Source: Author’s fieldwork.